gshakti

Grameen Shakti( gshakti – GS ), a member of the Grameen family was incorporated in 1996, as a not for profit company to promote, develop and popularize renewable energy technologies in remote, rural areas of Bangladesh.

Grameen Shakti ( GS ) envisages a future where rural households of Bangladesh, would have access to environment friendly and pollution free energy at affordable costs

Grameen Shakti Programs At a Glance 2006 :

Incorporated

1996

Number of district covered

64 out of 64 districts

Number of upazila covered

400 upazila (sub district) out of 464

Number of villages covered

25,000 villages

Number of island coveredc

11 islands

Total beneficiaries

More than 700,000 people

Unit office

227

Total employee

1135 (mostly engineers)

Total installation of SHS

77,000

Installed power capacity

3.85 MW

Daily power generation capacity

16 MW-hr

Installation rate

Over 2000 SHS/ month

Installation of micro utility system

1000 system

Installation of biogas plant

500 (Up to October 2006)

Number of trained technician

2,075 technicians

Number of trained customer

43,115 users

Number of full payee customer

20,000 customers

User under maintenance agreement

1,314 customers

Number of LED installed

10,485 lamps

Future plan- total installation of SHS by 2007

130,000 SHS

Future plan- biogas plant installation by 2010

200,000 plants

Keys to Success :

At present , Grameen Shakti ( GS ) is one of the largest and fastest growing renewable energy technologies to reach the rural people. It has successfully developed a market based approach. The basis of Grameen Shakti’s success is an innovative system for financing the solar home systems by villagers. This system is based on experiences from Grameen Bank’s micro-credit program. Other key factors include, linking renewable energy technologies with income generating activities, and providing efficient services at the local level through renewable energy entrepreneurs. Simultaneously, communities are motivated through awareness raising campaigns to establish new renewable energy businesses and create employment opportunities. GS also focuses on developing and pilot testing innovative approaches to reach the rural people with renewable energy technologies such as micro-utility model, community based biogas plants, innovative payment methodologies including payment through slurry, supply of livestock on credit to make biogas plants feasible.

The Key factors can be summarized as follows:

Ownership Model in which individuals take responsibilities to lower risk and maximize benefits